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Aug 30, 2016

Super Compact | Kenneth's Suzuki Swift Sport

While to most people, cars that will be the choice as a tuning platform usually is shortlisted to a group of particular models. Reason for that is because it is proven to perform with modifications, it has the basic traits of a performance vehicle and the availability for parts is high which makes it convenient to modify and tune. Which kind of makes sense why cars like a Civic Type R, or a Nissan Silvia or a Mitsubishi Evo always become the platform of choice.

But what about those sub compact cars which usually end up being a student's first car or a mother's shopping car? Apparently, aside from the usual performance cars, there is a crowd of those who have taken interest in the city subcompact. Among one of the reasons is the relatively small size and wheelbase which equals to an agile machine if driven by the right driver. Even though some may be driving a sub compact due to financial limitations, but the rest who already have a proper performance car find themselves being drawn to the subcompact.

For Kenneth's story, it started of when he was working with the Singapore Air Force. He was always a car enthusiast as far as he could remember. But given the situation of how ridiculously expensive a car can be in Singapore, the options he had was very limited. At first he wanted to look for a Civic EK4 but he eventually he settled for a Suzuki Swift Sport. Similar to the EK4, the ZC31S was a very light packaged car which only weighed just a bit more than one ton. But unlike the base model, the Swift Sport is equipped with a high revving 1.6 liter M16A motor which made 123 horsepower in stock form.

Under the hood, Kenneth decided to keep the naturally aspirated set up and decided to focus on modifications that would be suitable for an all motor setting. For the bottom end, he replaced the pistons with a custom set from Carrillo while keeping the rods and the crank stock. For the cylinder heads, everything was taken out and replaced with R's camshafts, valve springs, and head gasket. R's also provided the supporting parts for the motor like the reflashed ROM and water pump pulley. The motor was tuned with a Greddy e-Manage ECU by Jun Furukawa at ST Powered.

Despite not being at the performance level that is similar to something like a Civic Type R, Kenneth also made sure the aesthetics is at a level where he can feel satisfied with the overall look. Aside from the midnight blue body colour, the amount of carbon parts that his Swift has is somewhat impressive. To be exact, the Swift is equipped with a Chargespeed carbon hood, a Sunline carbon GT wing and a HKS Kansai rear diffuser. If that's not enough, the theme of carbon fiber continues on the dashboard as well. It actually feels like a real race car.

The thing that I like the most about Kenneth's Swift is despite him being more focused on the aesthetics of the car, he doesn't just do it for showing it off at a meet or car show. In fact, Kenneth is also a regular at the Sepang circuit. Though he may not be able to clock a time under the benchmark 2 minutes and 40 seconds due to the limitations of the car, but it is evident that he thrashes the Swift at track days whenever he is free to do so. Though to do so, he made sure the Swift's footwork was well equipped with a set of Advan AD08R tires and API coilovers.

A subcompact car may not be for everyone, but for those who don't put such a high expectation with numbers and driven with an unbiased mind, a subcompact like a Swift Sport can be a fun and enjoyable car to drive. It was once said that anyone can drive a fast car, but not anyone can drive any car fast. At least in my opinion, if a good driver is given a basic car like a Suzuki Swift, he can still drive the car hard with a smile on his face. But it's also thanks to cars like this, a novice driver can use as a stepping point before going to a proper performance car.